Weight Loss Medications

Popular Weight Loss Drugs

Phentermine (Adipex-P) is an inexpensive drug used to decrease appetite. It is used with a reduced calorie diet and exercise to help you lose weight. It is more popular than comparable drugs. It is available in generic and brand versions. It is not covered by most Medicare and insurance plans, but pharmacy coupons can help offset the cost.

Contrave (bupropion/naltrexone) is a combination product used to promote and maintain weight loss in obese adults or overweight adults who have weight related medical problems. Contrave is the most popular opioid antagonist/atypical antidepressant combinations. There are currently no generic alternatives to Contrave.

GoodRx has partnered with Inside Rx and Orexigen Therapeutics to reduce the price for this prescription. Check our savings tips for co-pay cards, assistance programs, and other ways to reduce your cost. Contrave is covered by some Medicare and insurance plans.

Qsymia is an extended-release combination of two existing medications: phentermine, used to suppress the appetite to aid in weight loss, and topiramate, used primarily to treat epilepsy and prevent migraine headaches but with a common side effect of weight loss. Qsymia has no generic alternative available. Another prescription option for weight loss, Belviq, is also now available.

Lorcaserin (Belviq) is an expensive drug used to promote and maintain weight loss in obese patients. This medicine should be used with a reduced calorie diet and, if appropriate, an exercise program. This drug is less popular than comparable drugs. There are currently no generic alternatives to Belviq. It is not covered by most Medicare and insurance plans, but manufacturer and pharmacy coupons can help offset the cost.

Amphetamine (Evekeo) is an expensive drug used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and a sleep disorder called narcolepsy. It is also used as a short-term treatment, along with a reduced calorie diet and exercise, to help you lose weight. This drug is less popular than comparable drugs. There are currently no generic alternatives to Evekeo. It is not covered by most Medicare and insurance plans, but manufacturer and pharmacy coupons can help offset the cost.

BENZPHETAMINE decreases your appetite. It is used with a reduced calorie diet and exercise to help you lose weight. This medicine is only meant to be used for a few weeks and should not be used with other weight loss medicines.

Methamphetamine (Desoxyn) is an expensive drug used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. This drug may also be used together with diet and exercise in the short-term treatment of obesity. This drug is less popular than comparable drugs. It is available in brand and generic versions. It is not covered by most Medicare and insurance plans, but manufacturer and pharmacy coupons can help offset the cost.

BENZPHETAMINE decreases your appetite. It is used with a reduced calorie diet and exercise to help you lose weight. This medicine is only meant to be used for a few weeks and should not be used with other weight loss medicines.

Note: Popularity is based on total prescriptions for the brand and generic versions of each drug, regardless of the condition being treated. Some drugs are prescribed for multiple conditions.

Recent News

Pharmaceutical manufacturers released a number of new prescription drugs in 2015. Some of these new drugs are truly lifesavers . . . and some aren’t. Either way, pharmaceutical companies will be spending lots of money to let you know about them—you’ll be seeing them on the sides of buses and in TV commercials for quite a while.

As a doctor, I’m always excited about improvements that help patients. See More

Many Americans struggle with their weight. More than two-thirds of American adults are considered overweight, and one-third are obese. Obesity-related illness is estimated to cost the American economy almost $200 billion a year.

Sadly, there isn’t yet a perfect pill to end obesity. However, there are a variety of prescription options to help you jump-start your weight loss, with a number of new drugs approved in just the past few years. See More

Obesity is a serious and costly disease—one that affects more than 34.9% of adults in the US. One medical option for some obese patients is weight loss surgery, also known as bariatric surgery, a voluntary operation to help qualified patients lose weight.

Who qualifies? Most candidates typically have a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 40 or be more than 100 pounds overweight (BMI of 35 if you have obesity-related health issues). See More

Sitting is bad, you knew that—but recent studies have confirmed that prolonged sitting is a risk factor for chronic disease. This includes heart disease, which cost the US almost $109 billion in 2010 alone according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including medications and other health care.

What has also been revealed is that physical activity outside of work doesn’t take away all the ill effects of sitting. See More

Contrave is the newest weight loss medication available by prescription and it looks promising. More than 7,000 prescriptions were written for Contrave in its debut weeks so I’m guessing many of you want to know about it. Turns out that getting a prescription for it may be a little tricky if you want to get it at a savings but there are nice perks the drug company offers that many of you don’t know about. See More

Do we have better meds for weight loss now? September brought news of two new weight loss medications, Contrave and Saxenda. Funny thing is both of them are drugs used for other indications, now approved for weight loss. So these meds have been around, in one form or another. These two will join Belviq, Qsymia, and orlistat (available over the counter as Alli).

Manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline has voluntarily issued a recall for all of its non-prescriptionAlli weight loss products in the United States and Puerto Rico. The recall is due to concerns that the product packages may have been tampered with, and do not actually contain Alli.

Tablets and capsules that were not Alli have been reported in Alli bottles in seven states, and in some cases, bottles were missing labels and had fake tamper-evident seals. See More

In the most recent Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report on obesity, about 35% of the US population is obese.

For those of us in primary care, obesity is the new tobacco and we have several conversations a day about lifestyle changes for weight loss and exercise. We can talk the talk . . . but do we walk the walk? These facts were surprising to me:

• 34% of physicians are overweight.

• Which specialty is the most overweight? General surgeons report being the most overweight physicians, with 49% confessing to being overweight to obese. See More

“Everyone in Canada is talking about Victoza for weight loss” was what I heard from a visitor last week. It’s true, the potential is there to use this new class of diabetes medications for weight loss, given that in studies folks lose weight and their appetite diminishes. So, what’s the scoop on Victoza?

Get to know GLP-1. You will hear more from this class of medications. Victoza (liraglutide) is a long-acting GLP-1 analog available for use in the United States for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. See More

Approved by the FDA for weight loss late last year, Qsymia (phentermine/topiramate) was initially available only through a home delivery program, meaning you couldn’t just go to your local pharmacy and fill your prescription.

Starting this month however, Qsymia will be available at certain local pharmacies. It still requires a prescription, and the selection of pharmacies is limited, but the change should offer more flexibility, and allow you to get started on the treatment sooner. See More

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